A quote often attributed to Henry Ford: "If we had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." The quote may raise a chuckle for us today, but there is amazing wisdom and insight in his statement.
In 2008, we could ask similar questions about the Canadian economy: What does Canada need to prosper on the world stage, and how can we raise our standard of living for the future? There are a lot of voices in Canada calling for faster horses. Ask anyone who's attended an economic development conference - these voices tend to dominate the discussion.
Among the offenders is the business community. This is odd in the sense that the business community prides itself on innovative thinking. It was likely a business wonk who coined the phrase "Think outside the box." And if it wasn't, the business community has at least been guilty of overusing it to the point of rendering it meaningless.
With some notable exceptions, the business community's usual recommendation is to cut taxes. From a profit perspective, cutting taxes would no doubt help in the short term. And lower taxes would likely spur growth and income for some. But it is perfectly analogous to the buggy driver asking for faster horses. A faster horse would have helped the buggy driver, but that wasn't what he really needed.
Social advocates also call for faster horses. Their solutions usually focus on helping the most disenfranchised in our society - the homeless, immigrants, aboriginals and those with physical or mental challenges. The work of social advocates and the many charities and not-for-profits should never be diminished. They are the heart and soul in an often heartless and soulless world.
The problem is that social advocates tend to see their clients as being without a horse in the first place. They see the horses of the wealthy going faster and faster. The policy solutions offered by many of these well-meaning advocates? Stop trying to engineer a faster horse and make sure everyone has a horse to begin with.
The government is often the whipping boy for big business and social advocacy alike, sometimes undeservedly so. Because of our electoral process, there is no direct incentive to prepare an economy for the long-term future. The government wants to give us a faster horse, but it also wants to make sure everyone has a horse - so a committee is formed to determine how to do this before the next election. And the committee gets sidetracked by arguing over the colour of the horse.
The Canadian economy doesn't need faster horses. Lower taxes, less bureaucracy, better trade deals, another royal commission on something or other - these may be helpful in the near term. And some are truly pressing needs that shouldn't be ignored.
But, at best, all they can ever do is give us faster horses.
What the Canadian economy needs to achieve greatness in the long run is a whole new DNA, a massive transformation of thinking and creativity and innovation that will do for the economy what Henry Ford's automobile did for transportation. We need to be elevated to a place we can't even fully imagine yet.
It's too limiting to say Canada's future will lie in natural resources, or in energy, or in manufacturing, or in agriculture. It's even too limiting to say it will be in banking or services or medical research. If we are to reach our potential as a nation, our economy will ultimately look like none of the above - yet with elements of all of the above combined in ways we haven't thought of.
So how do we get there? How can we shape our country's economy to reach its potential if we don't really have a good idea of what that potential looks like?
It's the task of a new generation of economic thinkers, designers, social advocates and entrepreneurs. Solutions will lie in education, literacy, science and the arts. The morphing of the economy will not come easily, nor will a new economic DNA be immediately revealed. But we're working on it. Stay tuned.
Opinions expressed are Todd Hirsch's own.